Thomas Murphy (collector)

Thomas Murphy (1821-17 August 1901) was a Republican member of the New York State Senate from 1866 to 1867 and in 1879 and Collector of the Port of New York from 1870 to 1871.

Biography
Thomas Murphy was born in Ireland in 1821, and he emigrated to the United States as a young man and worked as a fur trader before becoming involved in Whig and Republican politics. He made a fortune selling military equipment to the Union Army during the American Civil War, and he became involved with Roscoe Conkling's Republican political machine after the war. He went on to serve in the State Senate from 1866 to 1867, and he was appointed to the patronage position of Collector of the Port of New York in 1870, serving for a year. President Ulysses S. Grant replaced the unpopular Murphy with Murphy's friend Chester A. Arthur in 1871, and Murphy returned to the State Senate in 1879. He helped Arthur during his vice-presidential bid in 1880, and he later settled on a farm in Deal, New Jersey, where he died in 1901.